Category Archives: Workshop

Our long awaited Summer Longsword Workshop will take place on Saturday 30th of June 2018@ Little Island Sports Centre, Cork from 11am-5pm!

These workshops are aimed at beginners so everyone is welcome to try! We will cover all basic principles of edged based weapon fighting: footwork, using tempo and measure, basic guards and cuts as well as basic attack/defence strategies – we’ll even have some time at the end for a unique HEMA sparring experience!

Last month Cork Blademasters had the pleasure of hosting a Tactical Longsword Workshop: ‘Ready Set Go!’ with Lukasz Dabrowski from Fechtschule Gdansk, Poland.

!18

!17

!16

!15

!14

!333

!12

!8

!7

!5

!4

Throughout the seminar Lukasz has shown us how to assess the threat level of our opponent during the fight and how to react to it accordingly. Then by using the same steps we have learned how to deceive our opponent in order to get the reaction we want from them. Then we added feints and counterattacks into the mix and put it all together as an excellent combat template to be used with any weapon!

Share this:

Join us on the 25th of March 2018 at Waterford Crystal Sports & Leisure Centre and learn to fight like XV Century Knight in an intense 6 hours long medieval longsword workshop!

Waterford Longsword Workshop is an annual event held in a beautiful city of Waterford that aims to introduce HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) and the art of swordfighting to the general population.

In this workshop you will learn the basics of medieval fencing: movements, guards & basic combat strategies that you will be able to put to the test at the end of the workshop in a realistic combat sparring experience!

Festival of Warriors is behind us now so it’s time for a short review of the biggest event on the Irish HEMA scene!

Over 15 clubs from Ireland, UK, France and Netherlands have competed in various tournaments over the last weekend. We had Open Steel Longsword, Longsword Novice (Nylon), Rapier and Companion and Sword and Buckler tournaments. There were multiple workshops on all weapons available for beginners and advanced fencers alike. And of course at any given moment you could always find someone available for a friendly sparring session.

The atmosphere was as usual super friendly and relaxed which seems to be the main theme of this event. It’s one of the things that makes people coming back to FnG year after year – you know that you will always enjoy it, no matter what you do: competitions, workshops, sparring or even a simple chat in the canteen. Not to mention amazing nights out in a local pub afterwards 🙂

19667851_10159029089570523_808420880210192327_o

19679134_10159029095560523_2164330441973629000_o

19679222_10159029100845523_5329519838214820501_o

19621247_10159029104155523_8689862939777998445_o

19620135_10159029109480523_8486418229542729633_o

19693703_10159029131100523_3806495906434745708_o

19620504_10159029119965523_139593765989212222_o

19577330_10159029118960523_2178933870145646945_o

19702705_10159029123505523_617344161921024366_o

19693375_10159029132280523_3428772188793264112_o

19702675_10159029138690523_3641879877240181743_o

Our team did very well and I am quite proud with my beginners Martin and Riley who won Gold and Silver medals in novice tournament! Myself and Michael have won Silver and Bronze in Open Longsword Competition (congratulations to Ties Kool from HVN Netherlands for taking the gold!) Below you can find videos of the Open Longsword Tournament elimination phase up to the final fights:

It’s that time of the year again! Our German Longsword Workshops will take place this Saturday at 11AM at our Sunday’s training venue @ Little Island Sports Centre.

This one day 6 hours long workshop will give you a taste of what to expect if you take on any HEMA activity so if you’re thinking about trying it out here’s your chance! Covering all principles of fencing this workshop will teach you basic movements, guards, attack/defence techniques that can be used with any blade based weapons.

We’re happy to announce that Cork Blademasters are coming to Limerick with our first edition of Limerick Longsword Workshops that will take place on Saturday 13th of May 2017 @ UL Sport Arena from 11am-5pm!

These workshops are aimed at beginners so everyone is welcome to try! We will cover all basic principles of edged based weapon fighting: footwork, using tempo and measure, basic guards and cuts as well as basic attack/defence strategies – we’ll even have some time at the end for a free sparring!

As there seems to be an increasing demand for HEMA in Limerick area this workshop will serve as a probe for launching a new regular training group at Limerick!

On Sunday Cork Blademasters will visit beautiful Waterford City for a one day session of German Longsword!

So if you’re in the area join us in Waterford Crystals Sports and Leisure Centre from 12 am till 6 pm and see for yourself how the real sword fighting feels like!

Workshops are aimed at beginners so everyone is welcome to try! Just bring a comfortable sports clothes, indoor sport shoes, towel and lots of water 🙂

We will cover all basic principles of edged based weapon fighting: footwork, using tempo and measure, basic guards and cuts as well as basic attack/defence strategies – we’ll even have some time at the end for free sparring!

We’re happy to announce that due to popular demand we’re back with our Waterford Longsword Workshops that will take place on Sunday 19th of March 2017 @ Waterford Crystals Sports and Leisure Centre!

These workshops are aimed at beginners so everyone is welcome to try! We will cover all basic principles of edged based weapon fighting: footwork, using tempo and measure, basic guards and cuts as well as basic attack/defence strategies – we’ll even have some time at the end for a free sparring!

As there seems to be an increasing demand for HEMA in Waterford area this workshop will serve as a probe for launching a new regular training group at Waterford area!

I’d like to officially invite everyone to join us at the HEMA Ireland Sparring Meetup tomorrow @ Little Island Sports Centre, Cork from 11am till 5pm for a day full of workshops, sparring and other HEMA related activities.

For people who do HEMA it is a great chance to meet fellow swordsmen from other counties and spar with them, I’m sure we all realize how precious that is 🙂 So come and join us if you can!

For people who are new to HEMA but would like to come and try it out – please do, this is your best chance of meeting Irish HEMA community, talk to us, join us for a workshop or two and see how it feels for yourself!

For the shy ones – don’t worry, you’re welcome too! Even if you just want to come and watch, feel free to come too!

Share this:

Festival of Warriors 2016 – what a great event it was! Fantastic performance from Blademasters: big congratulations to Elliot and Joe for bringing us Silver and Bronze medals from the beginner’s longsword tournament! Well done 🙂 I’ve got one more bronze from the Open Longsword tournament as well so we’re coming back with three medals!

Congratulations to the winners: Peter Smallridge for winning Gold in Open Steel and Keith Farrell for Silver – I had a great fight against Keith and enjoyed that a lot! But apart from longsword there was also women longsword tournament (well done Michela!), beginners nylon longsword, sword and buckler tournament and a rapier one. Congratulations to all medalists!

As usual the organization was top notch: beautiful scenery, perfect accomodation with great food (showers in each room!) for a fraction of a normal price, 5 tournaments, lots of great classes, super friendly atmosphere (it’s Ireland after all :)). Honestly I cannot find a single thing to complain about! Great job Neil!

Classes were brilliant too, I did attend Keith Farrell’s Longsword class on Zwerchau, Ross Bailey’s Messer workshop, Lyell Drummond’s Backsword and Targe class – all of them were really good, very engaging and just pure fun to participate!

Keith’s classes are always great and very educating – he’s one of these teachers that will always show you a new perspective, that there is always a better, more efficient way of doing whatever you try to do. I value that very highly.

Ross’ Messer class was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Well structured, clear and easy to follow with a universal body mechanics that can be applied to any weapon really. I think our vision of Liechtenauer system is pretty much the same so Ross – you have convinced me to start studying Lecküchner 🙂

Last class I did was something entirely new for me – Lyell’s principles of Scottish Broadsword and Targe, great class on body mechanics and a nice introduction to fighting with shield. Very deceptive style of fighting, entirely different from sword and buckler but very very effective. I did enjoyed that immensely!

But of course, there were lots of classes I missed: Andy Damms’ Pugilism , Gary Nolan’s Meyer dagger and staff workshops, I missed another of Keith’s classes and i missed some of Mike’s excellent rapier stuff as well. It was really an action packed event, not mentioning the evening attractions at the pub 🙂

Great event, I really enjoyed it and looking forward to next year!

I’m uploading videos from open longsword tournament and beginner longsword tournament to our You Tube channel now so check it out in a while, i’ll post them on our Facebook Page too once they’re ready.